Love Language's latest album to come on heels of lineup change

Published: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 9:32 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 9:32 a.m.

When the Love Language returns to Wilmington on Saturday for a show at the Soapbox, it won't be the same band fans knew during the heady days of late last decade, when the indie stalwarts were regularly playing sweaty rock shows around town.

It won't even be the same band that often came back to visit the Port City early this decade after frontman and songwriter Stuart McLamb moved the Love Language to Chapel Hill (where they quickly became the band to see) and swapped out some original members with newer ones. On the eve of the Love Language's as-yet-untitled sophomore effort with Merge Records – a release date for the follow-up to 2010's "Libraries" is expected any day now – McLamb is breaking out a new lineup for the third time since forming the act in Raleigh in 2007. The band spent most of 2008 based in Wilmington.

"I kind of got heavy about it when people went their separate ways for the second time," McLamb said during a recent phone interview. He even thought about retiring the Love Language name and starting another musical project, but then realized, "It can keep changing, evolving, coming in and out."

Then again, at the end of the day the Love Language has always been about McLamb's musical vision, so as much as he leaned on bandmates for support – none more so than BJ Burton, who produced "Libraries" and helped record the upcoming album but is no longer in the band – perhaps the Love Language has always been, in one way or another, a solo project.

It certainly started out that way. The Love Language's self-titled 2009 debut, which was picked up by Portland, Ore., indie Bladen County Records, is an ambitious, energetic lo-fi masterpiece. Not by design, but because McLamb had no choice at the time but to record in his bedroom the songs of love and loss swirling around in his head. He played all of the instruments himself, layered and mixed it, then found a band and taught them to play his songs.

"The Love Language" certainly got the attention of the Triangle music scene and Merge Records. "Libraries," its follow-up and Merge debut, has many of the same elements – poppy hooks, ‘50s and ‘60s-style song structures, sweeping melodies of heartbreaking beauty, McLamb's full-throated vocals and inscrutable lyrics that reveal themselves upon repeated listens. Burton helped give it a studio polish, with a wall-of-sound depth and lushness that builds into mesmerizing transcendence on such tunes as "Blue Angel."

"I think a lot of Wilmington came through in the second record. A lot of it was written there," McLamb said. "It was great, good times. We were totally broke, drinking (cheap) beer and eating Burger King but making music and having a blast."

The new record is "more along the lines of the second album," said Matt Keen of Wilmington's Gravity Records, who's heard it. "He slow-roasted it."

Indeed, McLamb may be a bit like one of those grill chefs who can't help but check the burgers every five minutes, which feeds a sense of control but of course makes the whole process take about 10 times longer than necessary.

McLamb said the new album was "80 percent done in February of 2012, (but) I just went crazy on mixing. Went down some rabbit holes. Came back out."

Eventually, he realized that most of the beauty was there all along. The new album has horns and strings, as well as playing by all of his old band mates, including McLamb's brother, Jordan, who lives in Wilmington and may join the new lineup for Saturday's Soapbox show.

As for the new album's sound, McLamb said there are a bunch of upbeat rockers, and something of an early ‘80s vibe.

"I think we broke the mold a little bit," he said. "It's not all tambourines and ‘60s pop, but I think there are some songs that capture that old vibe."

The Love Language is known for the immediacy of its live shows, but increasingly, McLamb has been looking at taking the band on two separate routes, one upbeat, rocked-out and garage-y, the other playing sparse, slow, acoustic sets of chamber pop like the ones he's displayed in Raleigh on occasion during solo gigs.

McLamb has also been working on collaborations with other Triangle musicians, including a song for former Wilmington resident Ashlie White's "Pet-Tich-Eye" album-and-art-book project, and another for "Songs: Molina," for recently deceased songwriter Jason Molina of Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co.

However it all shakes out, McLamb will be playing some of his new tunes on Saturday, as well as the old favorites. It'll be a warm-up gig of sorts before the band takes the new album out on the road this summer.

"I've listened to it enough at this point," McLamb said. "I'm ready to play it."